He got this bread crumb recipe from the American Test Kitchen book that goes along with a pork chops recipe. (Thank you Rachel for letting us borrow your book!)
Ingredients for bread crumbs
2 tbs olive oil
1 tbs shallot
2 cloves of garlic
4 pieces of bread
2 tbs thyme
2 oz Parmesan cheese
First you heat up 2 tablespoons of olive oil over medium heat in a pan. Then add a tablespoon of shallot and 2 cloves of chopped garlic. When these have cooked in the oil, turn off the heat and let cool. While the oil cools, put 4 pieces of bread into a food processor. We used wheat bread because that is what we have on hand. Combine the oil and bread and place into a baking pan. Heat in a 350 oven for about 10 minutes. The smell is absolutely amazing while it is crisping up. When you are ready to use the bread crumbs, mix in the thyme and the Parmesan cheese. And wa la! Deliciously crunchy bread crumbs.
Chicken Cordon Bleu ingredients
4 chicken breasts
8 pieces of ham
8 pieces of Swiss cheese
7 tbs flour for dredging + 1tbs ground black pepper (in shallow pan or bowl)
6 tbs flour + 3 egg whites + 3 tbs Dijon mustard (mixed together in shallow pan or bowl)
bread crumbs (in shallow pan or bowl)
toothpicks (if needed)
Preheat oven to 350.
We used huge chicken breasts we got from Costco. He butterflied 4 breasts and then I smashed them flat with a frying pan. Nothing says team work like trying to keep raw chunks of chicken from flying off in the kitchen.
Assembly Station. It is important to have everything you need ready to go when you are handling raw chicken. You will be less likely to cross-contaminate this way.
I laid one flattened chicken breast onto a plate and layered the Swiss cheese and ham. I rolled it up and placed toothpicks on the ends to help it from oozing all the cheese while it cooked.
Next Greg put the rolled up chicken into the flour and pepper. (Picture was taken before pepper was mixed into flour).
He shook off the excess flour and placed it in the flour/egg white/mustard concoction. [This came from the same recipe as the bread crumbs for the pork chops. I'm not gonna lie, this was a little weird to make. It took a few minutes for all the ingredients to incorporate. When you're making it and you don't think it will ever come together, mix a little more and it will work out.]
After smothering it in the concoction, roll chicken into the bread crumbs. Place into a greased baking pan and repeat with the remaining 3 chicken breasts. It cooks up in about 35-45 minutes depending on the size of the chicken breast and also the oven.As a side dish, we steamed asparagus and served it with Hollandaise sauce. We bought a Hollandaise sauce package from the grocery store and made half the bag. What ever happened to the 3 egg yolks you ask? Let me tell you! We added it into the Hollandaise sauce. Of course we tempered it before putting 3 raw egg yolks into the sauce toward the end. It turned out great. Remember to take out the toothpicks! Dean calls it extra fiber, but I wouldn't want to bite into one.
How beautiful is that spiral!Greg certainly knows how to pick these recipes that take awhile, but they are always worth the wait!
